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Negotiations has been one of the most engaging classes I’ve taken all semester ! I opted for the once-a-week night class, and I’m glad for two reasons –

1. It’s better than the Tue/Thu day class combination since every class is designed in a way where you come prepared with the scenario, split into either team-on-team or one-on-one negotiations for roughly the first 90 minutes, and return to debrief in the second half to unpack what just happened. So it’s nice to be able to do that all at once without losing continuity.

2. The Working Professionals peer group makes for a very interesting class discussion. This is my first class with the WP students and it’s refreshing to hear their insights drawn from such a wide range of experiences, in addition to my own classmates whom I’ve come to know quite well over the past year.

Besides, if it’s a night class at the end of a long day, why not go for an interesting class like Negotiations where there’s a lot more ‘doing’ than ‘listening’. Some of the deals we are doing include job negotiations, multiparty deals, labor negotiations and dispute resolutions. There was even what I think was a ‘trick negotiation’, which was really a situation where walking away from the deal was the right thing to do. But we’d been making successful deals every week until that time and for some reason I felt the pressure to just make the deal. Fell right into that trap, I should say.

Apart from learning useful tricks of the trade that will help me enormously in my professional career, this class is a great confidence builder. And Professor Lount never fails to entertain !

I highly recommend Negotiations to students of all majors – it’s one of those classes with plenty of great takeaways. And for me personally, it’s a safe place to fail and learn as I continue to refine my leadership style.

Last semester I was lucky enough to be a part of the Sustainability team of The Ohio State University. Its major initiative – The Zero Waste Program, focuses on diverting 90% or higher of its waste materials away from landfills to be recycled and composted.

The Ohio Stadium, or the Horseshoe as it is popularly called, is now the largest stadium in the entire country to achieve zero waste. Last year, Ohio State won the 2012 Game Day Challenge, a competition in which we beat 78 other schools to divert the most football game day waste. More than 102,000 fans pack the stadium at any given game, and this is where the impact of the initiative is most visible. So, when thousands of fans are busy screaming and enjoying the game, members of our team are walking around the stadium (and trudging along in the snow come winter) , faithfully inspecting the bins, recycling and composting.

Also, after the Indiana game, our entire team went out on the football field and had our photo shoot for the season. This was also the first time I got to actually be ON the football field, so I wasn’t complaining. And did I also mention that it was snowing heavily? We spent a good forty five minutes taking pictures on the field and it was totally awesome.

Just look at all that stadium !

O – H !! Go Beyond

All said and done, it is extremely humbling to work with people who volunteer their services time and again to give back to the society in this way. I feel quite fortunate just to be part of a movement that accomplishes the incredible feat of 120,000 pounds of diverted waste materials every season. It also gives me a great opportunity to widen my circle beyond the Fisher group of friends whom I usually interact with and meet some really interesting and wonderful people.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend not one, but two Operations related Career Conference events and they were awesome! First, there was the Annual “Links Symposium” sponsored by the Operations and Logistics Management Association, and I volunteered to help organize this event, being a member of OLMA myself.

The half – day event was hosted at The Blackwell Inn, Fisher’s own hotel and Executive Conference Center. This year’s topic was Lean Management, and there were two discussion panels, one for Lean Management in Manufacturing and the other Lean Management in Services. For all the Ops and Supply Chain Majors out there, this was a fantastic opportunity to interact and network

At the OLMA Links Symposium

with the panelists, who were a mix of academic faculty and industry experts from companies such as Greif, Huntington, Cardinal Health etc. To top it all, we had a great moderator – Georgia Keresty, a lean expert with more than 30 + years of experience.

The very next morning I attended an Operations Career Change Round table event hosted by the Working Professional MBA Program. Fisher’s apt selection of the panelists should not go unmentioned. The 4 WP panelists were each from different areas of Operations – the distribution side, Supply chain side, the IT side and the customer side. It led to a very interesting Q and A session where they shared valuable stories from their work experiences and advice on how we could better ourselves to become ideal hiring candidates for Operations Management roles in top companies.

The biggest perk in attending these kinds of events is that you get to meet such vibrant personalities who are willing to help you in your career any way they can . Drawing from their experiences is a big plus, and ultimately helps you in connecting with more people in the field of your interest. Kudos to Fisher faculty and the COE , for their amazing contributions year after year and a special thanks to Fisher alumni who are so eager to give back to the business community – you are invaluable resources to the current students and one of Fisher’s greatest assets.

And these networking events are right at your doorstep. My advice is to never let these chances slip, because these are golden opportunities that can lead to lifelong career connections. Boy, am I glad I came to Business school

It seems like only yesterday that I landed in Columbus airport to begin my new journey as a Full Time MBA student at the The Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business, and already an entire term has flown by! It’s unbelievable how fast time flies when there’s so much to do – course work, classes, informational sessions, case competitions, job search, career interviews , and before you know it, your term exams are right around the corner! I remember feeling blindsided somehow – “They’re already here? But I’ve only just started my program!”

But that’s just the way it is. In hindsight, having seven weeks for a term leaves you with both a feeling of “Has it only been that long?” as well as that of “But so much has happened already!!”, which is a good thing I guess. Having too many things to do is way better than having nothing to do and I am glad that my MBA program here has truly tested my time management skills. I can already say that I am more adept at managing time effectively today ( a wee little bit ) than I was at the start of my program only seven weeks ago. Another aspect that I am excited about embracing and improving is my team-building skills. Myriad opportunities here. Take for example, working with our core teams for the entire tenure of our first year, or recently, the exciting prospect of working with my new teams in Project One ( a seven-week long project, at the end of which teams pitch proposals to Huntington Bank, a major local bank in Ohio), the upcoming GE Case Competition as well as the Fisher Internal Case Competition.

Some of the cool things that happened last term –

Football! – As an international student, I have to say that I am mind-blown by the importance the people here give to football; simply put it is like a religion here – the sooner you absorb it, the better. Tailgates and simply sitting at home and watching the game on the big screen (when I didn’t get tickets) have all been super fun.

Healthy banter between Professor Campbell and Gray – This was a fun part of our Econ and Data Analysis classes. Enjoying the sarcastic comments each had to say about the other subject/prof, the back and forth ribbing and the general camaraderie shared between the two and with us. It didn’t hurt too, that they took our class out for drinks at the end of mid-term.

Social events – Awesome opportunity to get to know your fellow classmates and second- years and make friends. There have been so many of these I can’t even count, and I know there will continue to be many more.

Info sessions – Learning about the culture and working of different companies, meeting with executives has been enriching. Not to mention all the free lunches.

All in all, it has been a packed first term and with a foot in the door on my second, I am readying myself for new developments and new challenges. I’m happy to be here. And I’m looking forward to a gorgeous two years of business school.